The Forgotten and Forsaken
by DoceoPercepto
Summary: A reunion of Ari and company is interrupted by an attack of a new enemy. It seems easy enough to defeat, but is it truly gone?  StanxRosalyn later Discontinued


"STAANLEEYYY!" A loud screech broke through the peaceful, early-morning silence that had previously occupied Ari's house. It startled awake the late-sleepers, especially the unfortunate boy Ari, whose room was closest to where the scream had come from.

Ari's mother, happily cooking breakfast, glanced up at the ceiling in surprise, as the noise had originated from the second floor. She wondered vaguely what had caused it, but thoughts of her exemplary cooking skills quickly distracted her. All in the house wondered what was going on. All _but _Stanley Hihat Trinidad XIV, that is, who knew _exactly _why the pink-shadowed hero was making such a big commotion.

Rosalyn's door slammed open and she stalked out furiously; blonde bed-head hair sticking up awkwardly, pajamas wrinkled, and golden eyes flashing irately. At her heels, her pink shadow followed faithfully. She stormed past Ari's room, from which the red haired boy had just emerged, rubbing his green eyes blearily.

'Rosalyn, what's -" He started tiredly, but she marched right past him, and turned the corner into the next hallway. Ari heard a second door violently burst open, then Stan's voice, in as pleasant tones as the Evil King could manage:

"Why hello. You're looking exceptionally corpulent today, wo-" A loud smack cut off the words. Ari rushed to Stan's room, fully waking up at last. Epros and Linda, who had also been disturbed by the noisy start of yet another heated argument, were also crowding at the open door.

Rosalyn, in all her disheveled glory, stood before Stan with her hands on her hips. The Evil King looked mildly offended, yet still irrepressibly gleeful, and was rubbing a red spot on his cheek.

"What have you done with my parasol, you stupid fake Evil King?" Rosalyn shouted.

"Your parasol is gone?" Stan asked in mock surprise. "Did you lose it in all your fat?"

Rosalyn gave a frustrated cry and lunged to hit Stan again. He grabbed her wrist and sneered down at her, causing the hero to tremble with rage.

"Uh, guys?" Ari interjected from the hallway. "Please don't fight..."

"I will defeat you, and force you to turn my shadow back!" Rosalyn declared. She leapt away from him and her hand flew to her hip. She froze, realizing that her rapier was still in her room with the rest of her clothes. In her anger, she had neglected to put it on over her pajamas. Stan threw back his head and laughed.

"Haha, foolish woman. I see you're just as stupid as usual; you forget your weapon!" He cackled.

Bristling, Rosalyn clenched her fists and darted at Stan, aiming a punch at his face. He quickly dodged, but his laughing ceased and his eyes narrowed.

"You think you can fight moi, Evil King Stan, without even a rapier? You can't beat me _with_ one!"

"I _will _best you, in the name of justice!" Rosalyn cried, once more moving in to attack her opponent.

From the doorway, Ari looked on with dread, and slight disappointment. They had promised to be civil for this weekend of the reunion, but the pleasant behavior hadn't even lasted two days. Epros, outfitted in his usual purple and black checked tuxedo, red bow-tie, and red pants, glanced over at Ari with his persimmon eyes.

"I wonder if it is for hate they fight, or perhaps some reason other than spite?" The former Phantom Evil King commented. Ari met his gaze in confusion, momentarily looking away from the two fighters.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "They despise each other." Epros tapped his chin thoughtfully, raising one eyebrow. The expression gave him a slightly comical countenance, with the purple ringed around his eyes.

"Do they really despise," he contemplated, "or will the truth come as a surprise?" Before Ari could work out a meaning to Epros's cryptic talk, his attention was abruptly brought back to the Hero and King as one of Stan's dark energy bolts missed Rosalyn and incinerated the bedside table.

Rosalyn, in turn, successfully used her hero magic to throw Stan against the wall, causing the entire house to shake. A few pictures fell from the walls, and one fell right on the burning pile of wood that had once been a table. Ari groaned and put his hands in front of his face. He shook his head.

"I just wish they would stop," He moaned. Epros nodded at Ari briefly, causing the stray blonde locks that stuck up from the rest of his hair to bounce. His feet lifted from the ground and he bravely levitated between the two battlers right as they were diving at each other again. He spread his arms wide and held up his hands in front of Stan and Rosalyn in a gesture to stop.

The two stilled their attacks momentarily. Out of breath, they said nothing but looked at Epros questioningly. He regarded them with disapproval.

"Halt, calm thy hot blood and stop being rude. Do you not remember your promise, nor see Ari's mood? If this remains the only way thy hate is pleased, then I beg you: find another time for it to be appeased."

Rosalyn lowered her head shamefully, but Stan just snorted disdainfully. He turned into a shadow and vanished from their sight.

"I'm sorry, Epros is right Ari." Rosalyn admitted, looking him in the eye. "We shouldn't have fought after we swore not to." She paused, then: "Well, at least _I_ should have kept my promise. But _he_ -"

"Rosalyn!" Ari exclaimed, knowing that if he didn't assert himself he would just get ignored again. And the last thing he wanted was to have to go back to Triste.

"Sorry!" Rosalyn yelped. Then she sighed and trudged out of the room. "I'm going to get dressed, see you at breakfast," she called over her shoulder. Linda, who had been strangely quiet throughout the whole scene, watched her go with a mysterious, knowing smile on her face, as if she just realized something that the others had yet to discern.

"Linda?" Epros questioned, noticing her odd look. The effervescent former Teen Idol Evil King spun on her heel and produced a wide smile.

"Hey Eppy!" Epros inwardly flinched at the slaughtered, peppy version of his name. "I'm going to go eat too, won't you come?" She giggled and rushed off without waiting for a reply, her stride full of bounce. The former Phantom Evil King turned to face Ari.

"I'll take my leave now, Ari. If you want breakfast, mind you not tarry." With these final words, Epros drifted down the hallway and back into his own room. Ari glanced down at himself, taking in his own green pj's and bare feet. He tread back to his room and sat down on his bed, sighing.

His shadow abruptly exploded out behind him, knocking the poor boy to the floor, and Stan materialized in his human form. The Evil King reclined back against Ari's pillows and rested his hands behind his head. Ari picked himself off the floor and frowned slightly.

"Stan, were you just hiding in my shadow that whole time?"

The Evil King inspected his nails distractedly.

"Of course, Slave. I wasn't going to go into Rosalyn or Epros's; they're too stuffy. And Linda's is too skinny.

"Thats not what I meant," Ari mumbled. He turned to his dresser and searched for his usual clothes; tannish pants, blue and white striped shirt, and a grey vest that went over it, as well as matching grey gloves. "Stan, I have to change." The Evil King at first gave no sign of a reply; his yellow eyes were looking at the ceiling in what seemed to be a thoughtful expression.

_Stan, thoughtful? _Ari thought to himself. _Must be plotting world domination again. _"Stan, can you wait outside?" Ari repeated louder. Stan jumped slightly and glanced over at Ari. Scowling, he got up from the bed and stalked out of the room.

A few moments later, Ari emerged and the two walked downstairs to breakfast.

Ari sat down at the table between Marlene and Kisling: the latter who was busily talking with Ari's father. Big Bull was across from Kisling, wistfully looking at Linda. At either side of the table was Ari's grandparents, and Rosalyn was across from Ari. The only empty chair left was beside Rosalyn, and that's where Stan placed himself - earning a glare from the pink-shadowed hero. Stan still hadn't given her parasol back, but she was determined to be civil in front of Ari.

"By the way," Linda suddenly interjected, looking around the table. "Where's Epros?" The casual chatter ceased for a moment and the various characters realized that Epros, indeed, was not sitting with them.

Linda turned to Ari. "You saw him last, Ari, where'd he go?"

"Back to his room," Ari replied, resuming eating his breakfast. "Maybe he wasn't hungry." Stan snorted.

"Good, we don't have to hear his incessant rhyming."

"Wish we didn't have to hear your annoying voice," Rosalyn muttered.

"Don't fight you two -" Ari was cut off as Stan dove at Rosalyn, knocking her off her chair. The two landed hard on the floor and proceeded to fight each other; both trying to get the upper hand while shouting insults. Ari smacked his face and sighed. Wasn't that going a little too far? Usually their insults were kept to verbal attacks, but apparently that was changing. First this morning, now at breakfast again? Marlene shifted slightly in the chair next to him and leaned over the table.

"Shouldn't be split them up?" Her worried eyes glanced back at Ari.

"Uh huh huh huh huh no, honey," Ari's grandmother said from the end of the table. "They'll work it out." Marlene frowned slightly, but sat back down. She smoothed the simple grey dress she still wore and picked up her fork, politely and daintily slicing a bit of her pancake and placing it in her mouth. Since she had appeared from Triste, Marlene had been much gentler and kinder than the Marlene they had known. She still could be sharp at times, and her perfect princess manners never faltered, but overall her personality was very different. Ari couldn't help liking this Marlene better; he had more than enough headstrong people in his life.

She was also much more in-tune to him than other people. For one thing, she had never failed to hear him or ignored him when he was talking.

"They sure are strange," Marlene said, pretending to not hear the angry remarks, but failing.

"Thats an understatement," Ari groaned. _This _was the reason he had been hesitant to have a reunion with everybody. Disaster was sure to happen, he had predicted, and therefore held off attempting a reunion. But as the months went on, he really began to miss his old friends. Life just hadn't felt the same after he had returned from his adventure with them. First of all, it had really hit him that he had few actual friends in his own hometown - in fact, he had none. The matter had never bothered him much before; after all, he was usually running errands for his mother or hanging out at home.

But after coming back from his journey to defeat Evil Kings, his jaded and friendless life didn't seem like enough.

So finally, a year after Beilone was defeated, he invited everyone back for a week-long reunion. Unfortunately, it was only the second day and problems were already starting to arise. Stan and Rosalyn, apparently, hadn't seen each other that entire year, though Rosalyn had persistently pursued him to get him to change her shadow back. Now that they were living in the same house, the still-pink-shadowed hero and Evil King couldn't stop fighting.

"Anyway," Ari said, "How is your new dress coming along?" Marlene lately had been taking lessons from Ari's mother on how to sew. She'd picked up the trade relatively quickly, and was now busy sewing a new dress for herself. Ari's mother had offered to simply buy her one, but Marlene had insisted that she wanted to make her own.

"Very well," Marlene smiled. "It's nearly finished, actually. I -"

Suddenly, the door slammed open, startling all gathered at the table. Even Stan and Rosalyn ceased their struggling to look up.

Epros stood at the door, red eyes widened and face unusually pale.

"Comrades, a terrible enemy has made himself known, hurry, I cannot fight him on my own!"

For a moment, everyone was frozen, staring at him in shock.

"Hie!" He cried, desperation evident in his posture. **(1) **He turned and bolted out the door. Ari and company were jolted into action, and they all leapt up from their seats and raced after him; leaving Ari's parents and grandparents sitting at the table amongst the clutter of empty chairs. Once more, there was danger in Tenel.

* * *

**(1) Hie means hurry in Shakespearean language, fitting of Epros, I figured. Hope you enjoyed this first chapter :)**


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